Before I get into today’s post, I wanted to remind you that today at 5pm central time the auction ends here on the blog. Please note it you get the blog sent to you by email, you have to go directly to the blog post about the auction to actually bid. To be fair to everyone, no bids are accepted via email. HERE is the link to the post. You will need to read through the comments to find the current high bidder and then bid higher than that amount.
Now to today’s post:
I finally got some sewing time. It wasn’t a long uninterrupted day…but I did get some time.
I am working on County Fair from the book Scrap School.
I mentioned here on the blog that anyone who wanted could sew along and make the quilts from the book as I made mine. I’m seriously hoping to make most of the quilts in this book.
This is County Fair.
I cut out a bunch of squares last week and this week I had a goal of only getting five blocks done over the week…
I blew that goal out of the water!! I’m so happy. Here’s my tally.
Did you read that? 35 blocks done. YAHOO!!
For this project, all of my Mini Eclairs and Dish Washer pod containers have come in handy to keep all of my colors sorted.
I need to be working on Eli and Emmett’s baby quilts but I want to get my area cleaned up a bit first.
With me in the garden and working outside all of the time, my sewing room had gone into a terrible messy state.
I took some time and tidied it up enough so that I could at least see some space. UGH. I hate when I let it get so out of control.
After that, I did my blocks for the Lori Holt Red Sampler.
I am still loving this and haven’t petered out. I was so afraid that I would. I’m actually really proud of myself that I’m still happily keeping up with this. I never dreamed I would actually LOVE it. I really do.
At some point this week I’ll try to get the blocks I’ve made so far all laid out so you can see them all together. I know these blocks all get a frame on them and I’m a little hesitant on how I’m going to do that. All of my blocks have different backgrounds. Many of the blocks I used scraps so there is no way to match the background. I didn’t know if I should do them scrappy or all the same color in the frame…Hmmm. I’ll have to think on that some more.
While I’ve been doing the bit of sewing that I have, I have also been working on these as leaders and enders. Right now I have 16 finished rows with 18 squares in each row. I want to make at least two more rows. That would make a quilt about 90″ x 90″. I’m going to have some squares left so now I think I might add to them and make it 19 x 19 instead. Might as well use up the squares…right??
I love having a simple leader and ender project going along with my other projects. These often are donated.
This was a great way to use up the pieces that a blog reader had sent. It was also great to clean out some of the stash with pieces that were small or in colors I was haveing a hard time using.
Maybe next week I’ll have these rows finished and can move on to sewing a few rows together…let’s hope!!
I’m so happy I was able to get a bit of sewing time this week. I still have lots of gardening stuff to finish up so I’ll still be short on sewing time but that’s totally okay too. It’s hard to have so many hobbies that I love!
Jo
I look forward to reading your blog each morning. I’m up early and pour myself some coffee and sit down and have a chat with you. Thanks for all you do with your charity quilts.
Enjoy the day!!
All of your blocks are so pretty! Love the batik squares too, that will be a beautiful top :) Your room doesn’t look so bad, I have seen worse :)
I agree with your last line. Having hobbies you love is the best (and can be the most difficult) of dilemmas. I have two friends who never had hobbies, are not inclined to take up any now, and are bored to death in retirement. Like you, I also like having a number of projects going at once. Sometimes one will appeal to me more at one point in my life than another. After seeing your link to “Scrap School,” I explored the link of one of the contributors to the book, a blogger who said she took up one of her featured projects at an especially stressful time in her life (son with medical issues) and how much the act of piecing gave her comfort. P.S. I am the same way about my sewing room. I can handle just so much “disorder” and then I have to restore order so I can keep going.
You may not think you are getting much sewing time, but the time you do spend sewing, you accomplish lots. It is fun to have hobbies that we love doing, but sometimes it is hard to know which to work on at the moment. All that you do turns out so beautiful. I particularly like the red block that was larger – looked like it had arrows.
Great job of using the time you had available, Jo! A good start on your Scrap School project, some red blocks, and all those batik rows, too? Go, you!!
Seems to me having to many hobbies suits you well! lol. Enjoy!
I, too, have many hobbies I love – I cannot imagine women who don’t have hobbies to escape to when life gets complicated. My housework suffers because of my hobbies but life is short, isn’t it?
Jo you just put your priorities where they need to be, your family, your childcare kids , your garden and all types of sewing you do, plus your reading. The garden is seasonal and needs attention now. I really admire all you accomplish. My sewing and reading has slowed down now the yard needs attention and the weather is nice to walk. Housework is still a yuck, not a priority.
Can you please elaborate on how you are keeping track of your colors for the County Fair scrap quilt? Did you decide on those colors only? You always seem to have a plan for your scrappy quilts and I’m sure that is why yours are always so lovely.